Outside of overall records, South Atlanta and Banneker have a lot in common right now. But after Friday when the Hornets and Trojans meet on the field at Lakewood Stadium, one team will move up in the sub-region 6B-AAAA standings and one will move down.

Last week, both teams fell to 0-1 in region play. The Hornets lost 26-21 to Washington on Thursday, allowing a long passing play in the final seconds for the decisive touchdown.

“We felt like we controlled the game and were the better team,” South Atlanta coach Julius Moses said. “We did everything we needed to do except finish during the closing seconds.”

A day later, the Trojans suffered similar consequences with a 30-8 setback to Carver-Atlanta.

“I felt like youth played a part in it and having a lot of freshman playing in key positions,” Banneker coach Tony Slaton said. “As the game went, I think their strength as in terms of the weight room played a key role in it. They were more physical than our kids.”

The only difference was that Banneker (2-3) had its two-game winning streak ended and South Atlanta (3-2) lost its second straight contest.

“We feel like we played the best two teams we are going to see this season in our last two ball games,” said Moses, whose team also fell to Chamblee on Sept. 22.

Now, the Hornets and Trojans are preparing to meet each other for the first time since the 1999, when Banneker prevailed 19-18.

“They’re a very fast team,” Slaton said. “They are very unorthodox, meaning they send a lot of people defensively on the blitz. But it goes back to us executing offensively and defensively this week, playing assignment football. I think if we do that we will be fine.”

“They seem to want to run the football, but they had a pretty decent passing game from 7-on-7 during the summer,” Moses said. “But we want to take away what they do best.”

While both coaches will come in with different game plans, they both have similar thoughts about how important this sub-region contest is.

“It’s almost like, if you go down 0-2, you are essentially entering a place of possibly no return, so you definitely don’t want that,” Moses said.

“I think the kids understand the expectations and know what is at stake,” Slaton said. “I don’t think they want to go down 0-2 in the sub-region.”